To hate that so many sports are so expensive?

[SwumMum]

DC had swimming lessons through a local competitive club from tiny. Almost without any real thought they've just stayed with the club, entering squads and taking part in galas and competitions. They are not in any way exceptional for their ages and whilst they enjoy it, they have no intention of competing in a more serious way.

The fees have ramped up slowly over the years, with occasional shocks such as an expensive gala or a particular piece of kit that had to be bought. We have just absorbed these costs but when we didn't have to pay through lockdowns we really noticed how much better off we were.

The club have now announced a 90% increase in membership fees that will be taken as a lump sum, plus an increase in fees per month too. This amounts to hundreds of pounds extra and we just can't pay. Along with lots of other families, we will have to leave the club and, due to a lack of local options, the kids will stop swimming.

We had a similar experience with gymnastics many years ago - the fees and kit costs were just an ever upward trend, out of all proportion to the benefit or enjoyment the kids got from it.

I work with someone who has a DD who plays tennis competitively and they fund the cost of training and competitions with a holiday home they rent out, and say there's just no way they could do it if they hadn't inherited the property when they did.

There seems to be such a financial barrier to accessing sports - there are so few pools and leisure centres where we live. No schools have really good sports provision and to pay for private clubs is prohibitive to all but the most wealthy.

AIBU to hate that for so many DC, sport is out of the question because of cost?

I'm involved in loads of youth sports. Some are cheap to participate at a basic level eg football, gymnastics, hockey & the odd social tennis lesson. At the more elite / higher competition end however all the kids do tons extra tra

Oops.. Extra training, extra sessions, 1-1 coaching. At rugby cricket tennis & hockey the private school kids do far more in school too. Often with specialised coaches and all sorts.
At age 12 upwards the top teams are all full of a high% privileged kids

Football subs 10 a month which I think is reasonable.
Gymnastics about 90 quid a term, which I feel is a lot.
Rugby currently free for my 6 year old.

What's really ripped us off this term is drama for a stagecoach company which has cost about £300!

If you can afford it and enjoy it lovely, but you could swim without it

But you'd be less competitive - so you'd get beaten by someone slower than you, and you'd not get to compete more lose interest etc.

Of course this is absolutely a failure of the National and International bodies, particularly in any junior competition putting harsher limits on clothing to avoid the cost disparity would be sensible, technology does so much to make sport not fair, it really has little place in junior sport.

Pray they don’t take up ice hockey ! Ice time is expensive, and all the kit is imported from the US/Canada so is eye wateringly pricey compared to cricket pads etc.

I don't know. Is sport that expensive, relatively speaking. It's certainly expensive, but compared to other "leisure" activities?
I went to the cinema this week, almost £20 each. 4 of us for bowling at the weekend £60. And I've been looking at a show that DS2 wants to go to over Christmas, tickets £40-£120. Each!

I agree with this.
Between them, over the years, my dc have done different sports and they have never been expensive. Maybe living in a City helps in that there are lots of different clubs and activities and anyone charging ridiculous prices would only get the small % of the population who are rich enough to not worry about paying ridiculous prices.

I mean, 'expensive' is relative of course. If you are 'just about managing' or you are homeless or you are having to use foodbanks, then of course anything for leisure is out of reach, but compare the cost of most sports with the cost of music lessons for example and sports look great.

[quote arethereanyleftatall]@whitehorsesdonotlie
Yes, well international.
I'm embarrassed to say I don't know why they're so expensive. Material probably, maybe the stitching. Makes me feel good though and probably shaves 0.01 seconds off 😂[/quote]
Congrats! That's a great achievement. Who are you? Anyone we'd know?!

I guess that's why so many kids turn to football. At our grassroots club, it's £100 yearly registration and £20 per kid per term and that includes their football kit. Not many activities that are as good value, although the coaches, of course, are volunteers.

@Mattttttt there's no ice rink within and hour and a half drive so no chance thankfully!!

Swimming lessons, £25 a month for a 30min lesson each week

Rugby... training free, but expected to help with fundraising. Pay for own kit. (Training run by volunteers)

Cricket... cost as £40 for the summer

Cubs... £25 per term.

So Cubs is a lot better value than the sports.

The costs for grassroots sports clubs depend on facility hire costs (or not) & whether coaches are paid etc. Cheap football clubs training on cheap council pitches are mainly run by volunteers. Hockey - you need a decent Astro etc. Rugby clubs often have generous sponsors & big fund raisers with volunteer staff..
But once you go above the grassroots stage the costs spiral. Youth tennis is totally an elite sport with parents forking out hundreds of pounds a month.

Lol @whitehorsesdonotlie I'm afraid not! I don't even have a Wikipedia page. Just about hold the whole of the first page on google. Was in The swimming times a few times. And have a posh cossie. That's it! Sorry to disappoint.

[quote SwumMum]@SkankingMopoke that's when we gave up gymnastics! The tracksuits and kit they mandated for the move up came to more than a weekend away as a family...

Do you pay an annual fee for swimming too? Or just your monthly costs? The top squad in our club are going to be paying £100/month plus £200/year before gala, race and kit fees or transport costs.[/quote]
Yeah, with the gym we're swallowing it for now but aren't pushing DD2. I'm hoping she'll get bored TBH (one can hope!). We only started as it's a good base for strength/fitness/flexibility when you're a 3yo, but she is good at turning her hand to many things so swapping sports shouldn't be an issue later on. I like the idea of cheering, and sure she'd love it too. Her currently lessons in tumbling would be perfect for that. She is also a good swimmer, but not quite ready to try out for DD1's club yet (another 3 or 4 months to meet the minimum requirements I suspect).

DD1 has no other annual costs eg memberships or comp fees yet. She is only 7yo but came top for her age by quite a long way in the club's recent gala, so I expect that will change in the not-to-distant future. She loves being in the pool and is desperate for more time in the water.

We have a dancer. I started them at 3 /4 thinking it would be lovely and it was, plus at that age only need one leotard, one pair little ballet slippers, and fees are only about £7 per week for a Saturday morning class. Gorgeous.

Now in early highschool. Annual costs well above £5000 for classes, various shoes, practice and performance clothing, etc, and then there's travel/accommodation for eisteddfods, physio costs, etc. If they want to pursue it as a career this is the necessary investment and it will need to go up over the next few years! It seems to be like paying for university while they are still at school as well, as they need to emerge as fully trained professional- ready dancers by the age of 18/19.

We are very lucky and can afford it by giving up other discretionary things like holidays, but I am well aware that this is a position of privilege and the costs are so far out of reach for so many. There are scholarships available but the kids have to get to a certain (very proficient) point before they are eligible to apply for those, so there would be loads of potentially wonderful dancers whose families just wouldn't be able to pay for the necessary early training. I think PP was absolutely correct saying that in elite sport the people at the top are the top 1% of the people who can afford to do it.

@chickenpie1984

I've not noticed it where I am. Dc swims with a club (3times per week plus a land training session) and we pay £32 per month. Galas are extra and optimal but usually not more than £10. Previously she had swimming lessons through a council swimming pool at £19 per month.

Your pool must be massively subsidised! We're paying £80/month to swim for 4 1/2 hours a week in a bog standard 25m leisure pool in a club staffed by volunteers.

Pre-lockdown we were getting 9 hours for less.

Agree rugby is very good value- mine has played since he was tiny and it's about £100 a year now / less than £10 a month (less when he was little) plus petrol to matches or the odd tenner for a bus. Kit tends to get sponsored / supplied by the club so the only cost is boots, socks and gumshields. Admittedly given the very high attrition rate of gumshields that can add up
Football when he played was marginally more expensive but that was more to do with that specific club and the facilities there.

You could consider golf. The fees for juniors at my club are £130 a year. You can buy second hand clubs to start with. It's not that expensive, after reading about some of the sports on this thread!

Actually doing sport usually isnt expensive.

It's the club/competing/fancy kit element that is, and that part of it isnt necessary to enjoy sport.

You can go and play tennis cheaply on public outdoor courts in tons of parks.

Swimming at a public pool isnt usually too expensive, especially for children.

Running is cheap. Cycling can be if you look for second hand bikes etc.

There are public basketball courts and cricket nets & football nets and skate parks.

I think generally team sports run outside by volunteers are cheap - netball, hockey, rugby, athletics. As soon as the sport needs a specialist building (pool, gym) costs understandably go up. Also, volunteer dads coaching a group of kids to kick a ball round a field - fine. I believe England netball coaching courses start at less than £100 for example, so many parents might pay this themselves to help out their child’s club, or the club might chip in. I would imagine the training to coach gymnastics would be rather lengthier and rather more expensive, so gym coaches tend to be doing it as a career not for 2 hours a week as a volunteer.

I realised the other day I know of 3 parents whose children have been talented scouted to join some sort of ‘elite’ program, for hours and hours every week. I realised I know no parents who’s children who do gym for a bit od fun (after about age 5/6). Either I only know extremely talented gymnasts…or something is a bit off.

Misty mountain

Golf in england is an astonishingly expensive hobby for an adult. Club fees are extortionate (thousands per year) and the cost per round at clubs that don't require membership is prohibitive.

I know people in tennis & squash who are in a club squad then pay £50-60 a week for extra coaching. Age 8-10
Dance too is eye watering at top level.. all disciplines. I know lots of people in football whose weekly costs are more like £50 week as they play for two clubs plus extra sessions.. from age 5

@nancy75

Yes, dance makes tennis look cheap. DD did ballet when she was 4 (lasted 1 term) the uniform was £120!

Holy crap! For what?!? A leotard, shoes and socks for a 4 yo is not that expensive!!!!!

It's the club/competing/fancy kit element that is, and that part of it isnt necessary to enjoy sport.

I agree that the fancy kit element could very easily be made not necessary if the NGBs could only put accessibility above prestige.
But I disagree with you about competing. Competition is the very essence of many sports and is what drives people on to get better .... and fitter and stronger.

Bloody hell! I’m glad I grew up in the ‘80s, I used to have swimming lessons, I think it was about £1 a week. Dancing was similar. I guess the difference is my dance teacher had a FT job and did this as a hobby/passion. I learned to swim at a council pool, so the instructors and costs were paid by the council.

I don’t think anyone who went to a non-council activity had a teacher who did it to earn an income; they had other jobs or it would be someone’s relative who did it as a hobby. The bloke who DJ’d all my parties when I was little was the uncle of a friend and a prison officer day-to-day!

Yes but every gymnast in the elite program would have been talent scouted. I know plenty of gymnasts that stayed in rec level. My ds does 16 hrs a week of gym. My friend’s dd’s loan a pony at a local riding school. They do about 15 hours a week. Costs are the same. Some activities are expensive due to insurance/kit involved etc